Sugar v. State ex rel. Collector of Revenue

142 So. 2d 401, 243 La. 217, 1962 La. LEXIS 523
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 4, 1962
DocketNo. 45921
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 142 So. 2d 401 (Sugar v. State ex rel. Collector of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sugar v. State ex rel. Collector of Revenue, 142 So. 2d 401, 243 La. 217, 1962 La. LEXIS 523 (La. 1962).

Opinion

HAMLIN, Justice.

In the exercise of our supervisory jurisdiction (Art. VII, Sec. 11, La.Const.1921, LSA), we granted certiorari in this tax matter to review a judgment of the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit,1 which affirmed a judgment of the trial court in favor of plaintiffs in the sum of $5,712.18, together with interest until paid.2

Plaintiffs, L. L. and Charlotte W. Sugar, husband and wife, excluded from their 1955 Louisiana Income Tax Return, a certain item which they claimed was exempt from Louisiana Income Tax under LSA-R.S. 47:51. The correctness of their contention is the question posed for our determination.

For a proper understanding of this opinion, we reiterate the undisputed facts found by the Court of Appeal:

“In 1952 plaintiff taxpayer, L. L. Sugar, husband of Charlotte W. Sugar, became a member of a partnership for the operation of a general taxicab business under the name of Yellow Cab Company of San Antonio; by instrument dated December 31, 1954, all members of the general partnership doing business as Yellow Cab Company of San Antonio, and United Cab Company, both being taxi cab operations in Bexar County, Texas, sold all of the physical assets then being used in said business operations; the distributive share realized by plaintiff was not reported by the taxpayers as taxable income to the State of Louisiana;3 after audit of the taxpayers’ state income tax return for the taxable year of 1955, the Department of Revenue of the State of Louisiana took the position that the exclusion of the sale of capital assets outside the State did not apply to the transaction in question; the resulting assessment of a tax deficiency was paid under protest and this suit was duly filed for refund thereof.” See, LSA-R.S. 47:1576.

The Court of Appeal, relying almost exclusively upon the case of Hatch’s Estate v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 9 Cir., 198 F.2d 26, found that the transaction, supra, “clearly constituted a sale of capital assets accruing to the individual partners, in accordance with which the taxpayer would be required only to make the same type of return as if the ownership of the property had been vested in him individually rather than in the partnership entity.” It construed the provisions of LSA-R.S. 47:51,4 "Gains from the sale or exchange of capital assets located outside the State of Louisiana shall not he included in gross income cmd shall be exempt from taxation wider this Chapter” in favor of plaintiffs and held that the case [403]*403of Peters v. Cooper, La.App., 90 So.2d 892, was not apposite to the instant matter. (Emphasis ours.)

The Collector of Revenue contends that: — (1) the Court of Appeal erred in its interpretation of the decision in the case of Hatch’s Estate v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 198 F.2d 26; (2) the Court should not have considered the Hatch case, supra, as being decisive of the issues in the present case though the decision is pertinent; (3) the Court erred in failing to recognize the opinion in Peters v. Cooper, supra, as being authority for the proposition that intangible property must have its situs outside the State of Louisiana for the exemption provided by LSA-R.S. 47:51 to apply; and (4) the Court failed to recognize the distinction between a sale by partners of their interest in a partnership and a sale by the partnership of its assets and, further, failed to recognize that the situs of intangibles is one of the principal points involved in the present case.

Plaintiff L. L. Sugar argues that the profit he received resulted from the sale of a capital asset, which had its situs outside the State of Louisiana and was therefore exempt from Louisiana income tax liability. He further urges that the judgment of the Court of Appeal be affirmed by this Court.

In determining whether plaintiff, L. L. Sugar sold a capital asset or a partnership interest, we must first consider the nature and character of the contract of partnership.

In 1848, in the case of Smith v. McMicken, 3 La.Ann. 319, 322, this Court stated: “ * * * The partnership once formed and put into action, becomes, in contemplation of law, a moral being, distinct from the persons who compose it. It is a civil person, which has its peculiar rights and attributes. Une personne fictive et morale séparée des associés. * * * therefore, the partners are not the owners of the partnership property. The ideal being thus recognized by a fiction of law, is" the owner; it has a right to control and administer the property, to enable it to fulfil its legal duties and obligations; and the respective parties, who associated themselves for the purposes of participating in the profits which may accrue, are not the owners of the property, itself, but of the residuum which may be left from the entire partnership property, after the obligations of the partnership are discharged.” In Toelke v. Toelke, 153 La. 697, 96 So. 536, we said that “partnership property belongs to the partnership, and not to the partners, whose interest is only in the residue after liquidation.” The foregoing principles were reiterated, affirmed, and enlarged upon, in the case of Trappey v. Lumbermen’s Mutual Casualty Co., 229 La. 632, 86 So.2d 515. In Quarles v. Albritton, La.App., 116 So.2d 175, it was said, “The Courts of Louisiana have consistently, in many varied types of case.s, held strongly to the civil lav/ concept that a partnership is a separate legal entity entirely distinct from its individual members.” See, also, 40 Am.Jur., Sec. 114, p. 209, wherein it is stated: “It is well settled that the joint effects of a partnership belong to the firm, and not to the partners, and that a partner has no individual property in any specific assets of the firm, and no right during the existence of the partnership to the exclusive possession or use of any of its property. Instead, the interest of each partner in the partnership property is his share in the surplus after the partnership debts are paid, and after the partnership accounts are settled and the rights of the partners inter se are adjusted. . Nothing is to be considered as the share of a partner but his proportion of the residue or balance after an account has been taken of the debts and credits, including the amounts paid by the several partners in liquidating firm debts or in making advances to the partnership. This interest in the surplus alone is available for the satisfaction of the separate debts of the partner.”

[404]*404An examination of the jurisprudence of Texas discloses that its appreciation of the nature and character of the contract of partnership is similar to that of Louisiana. In Miller v. Howell, 234 S.W.2d 925, 930, Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, the court stated: “ * * * The joint effects of a partnership, including- realty, belong to the firm, and not to the partners, and a partner has no individual property in any specific assets of the firm, and no right during the existence of the partnership to the exclusive possession of any of its property. The interest of each partner in the partnership property is his share in the surplus after the partnership debts are paid, and after partnership accounts are settled and the rights of the partners inter se are adjusted. * * * ” In Egan v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re Howard Marshall Char. Remainder Annuity Trust
709 So. 2d 662 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1998)
North Baton Rouge Dev. Co., Inc. v. Collector of Rev.
304 So. 2d 293 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1974)
Robinson v. Houston Fire & Casualty Co.
200 So. 2d 776 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1967)
Johnson v. Collector of Revenue
165 So. 2d 466 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 So. 2d 401, 243 La. 217, 1962 La. LEXIS 523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sugar-v-state-ex-rel-collector-of-revenue-la-1962.